Did snobbery delay Dodd's knighthood?

I WATCHED the BBC tribute to Sir Bruce Forsyth last night (March 11), and I awake to the news of the death of another comic legend, Sir Ken Dodd.

I was very fortunate to attend one of Sir Ken's famous shows in the long-lamented Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, about 1969 I think; my parents had bought us tickets for a performance at the end of the week, and the reviews and "word on the street" were that this was something very special; and it was. Not only were his support acts people of the calibre of Donald Peers and Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnstone, and of course the Diddymen, but for the first time, in my early twenties, I saw and heard the true meaning of entertainment; this legend told jokes, sang songs, spoke to the audience, finished his show (we thought) by singing a solo, tidying his hair, and sincerely thanking the audience for being such a wonderful one, then signalled to the percussionist for the traditional roll of drums to get us to stand for the National Anthem, which all 2,000-plus of us did of course, only to realise that we had been fooled as Doddy immediately started to sing us Happiness – and entertained us for a further hour or so. No wonder the entire audience sang to him "Will you no' come back again?" at the end of the show, and reduced the comedian to tears.

So why in this country does it take two comic geniuses like Brucie and Doddy to reach such wonderful old age, before they receive their long-deserved knighthoods? Snobbery? Who knows? But what I do know is that it is/was a disgrace, when one can list many other people in all fields, apart from variety and entertainment, who are/were much less deserving than those two gentlemen whose likes we probably will never see again.

Walter Paul,

69 Coplaw Street, Glasgow.

THERE are said to be only three group naturally funny groups of people in Britain – the Liverpudlians, the Glaswegians and London's Cockneys.

One of the best known of the first group, Ken Dodd, arguably the last great music hall entertainer, followed the reverse path from his younger Glasgow equivalent Billy Connolly, going from stand-up comedy into singing.

He had a remarkably fine light baritone voice and his song Tears topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1965 and remains one of the UK's all-time biggest-selling singles.

His tax evasion case was hilarious and as it was held in Liverpool there wasn't the remotest chance of him being convicted. I was pleased to see that the Establishment finally forgave him, awarding him a knighthood in the 2017 New Year's Honours.

It was also delightful that he married his partner of 40 years two days before he died, thus avoiding our brutal inheritance/death taxes.

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